5 piece melodic type doom with keyboards from Stockholm
Moonhorse begins with a slow, trudging riff before changing to acoustic guitars as Jennie’s beautiful melodic voice starts telling a story of a boy’s daydreams. It’s hard to pull away, even though it clocks in just under 9 mins.
Moonhorse is undoubtedly my favorite and a perfect choice to open the album.
The title track Avatarium begins with another heavy riff, building slowly also and has an epic feel to it. Avatarium is quite deliberate and slow, as one would expect from a band in this genre, but has plenty of soaring, tasteful guitar work. It is a moving piece, and I found the keyboards were not over-used but fitted in with the material in a discerning way. I particularly liked the way the drums lead into Tides of Telepathy and emphasize the dynamics within this unit.
There is plenty of light and shade on this album as the quiet moments can lead to both explosive riffing and powerful vocals. Nothing feels forced either, with no tracks under 5 minutes and most of it develops with a very natural feel. Also worth mentioning is Avatarium has Leif Edling from Candlemass playing bass.
Doom royalty!
This is not the sort of album that clubs you over the head with lots of shredding and technical prowess or aggression but I found it had seduced me by the end of the first song. An extremely infectious album and on heavy rotation in my car.
Avatarium: Facebook
Release Year: 2013
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Category: Album
Country: Sweden
Reviewed by Matt
